City enforces ordinance on fraudulent weighing scales

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union- The city government, on instructions of Mayor Pablo C. Ortega, has begun strictly enforcing a local ordinance which imposes penalties on the use of defective, fraudulent, unregistered and non-calibrated weighing scales including confiscation and destruction of the gadgets.

City treasurer Edmar Luna said that as of last Monday, her office has destroyed some 63 false weighing scales during a random inspections in the public market, saying that the number is expected to rise as soon as all confiscated gadgets are accounted for.

“This is one way of protecting public market consumers as well as stopping vendors from the illegal practice,” Luna said, adding that all violators would be fined P5, 000 each.

Luna said that under City Ordinance No. 2010-010, all weighing scales within the city jurisdiction must be registered and calibrated at the Treasury Office, with a fee of P150. 00 each.

“This is a yearly crackdown but it seems that they never learned their lessons,” Luna said, referring to the erring vendors.

During the last administration, confiscated weighing scales were non-calibrated, old and tampered. Dishonest vendors used them by making it appear to the customer that the product he or she was buying was weighed correctly but actually short by more than a kilo.

There were some who used heavy five-peso coins placed under the plates to add heft but in reality, robbing the customer several grams of the product, it was learned.

Luna said that most of the confiscated weighing scales were from the Bagsakan Area (Unloading and Packing Area) and along Doña Paca and other streets near the San Fernando City Auxiliary Wet Market, where a number of illegal vendors, mostly fish sellers, are left unchecked by market authorities.

Personnel of the City Engineering Office used sledge hammers and other heavy equipment in destroying the weighing scales at the Lion’s Park.- William Jun Garcia / northboundasia.com